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Soul Surfer (film)
Soul Surfer is a 2011 American docudrama based on the life of surfer and shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton. Sean McNamara acted as both director and scriptwriter for the film. His screenplay was based on the Bethany's Soul Surfer autobiography and interviews with the family. AnnaSophia Robb stars as Bethany in the film, while Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt play the roles of her parents, Tom and Cheri. Carrie Underwood, Kevin Sorbo, and Craig T. Nelson have supporting roles in the movie. Shortly after Bethany's recovery from the shark attack in 2003, her manager Roy "Dutch" Hofstetter planned to create a biopic about her. After several attempts to begin production on the film went nowhere, Sean McNamara and some new writiers were brought in to take over the project. In addition to using Bethany's 2004 autobiography as source material for the screenplay, McNamara interviewed the Hamiltons to learn more about the family conflicts that did not receive mention in the autobiography. Filmed on location in Hawaii in 2010, Robb wore a green sleeve on her arm so that the film's special effects crew could create the appearance of a stump in post-production. Impressed with the quality of the final product, TriStar pictures greenlighted Soul Surfer to be released in 2,000 theaters instead of the original 300 the distributor had planned. Opening on 8 April 2011, the film was a box office success, earning over $43,000,000 domestically. Plot The story takes place in 2003, where Bethany Hamilton is living in Kauai, Hawaii with her parents Tom and Cheri, and brothers Noah and Timmy. Deciding to train for an upcoming surfing competition instead of accompanying her church youth group on a missions trip, Bethany disappoints her church ministry leader Sarah Hill by not coming along. Bethany wins her surfing competition and, much to her delight, her best friend Alana places third. When Bethany invites Alana and second place winner Malina Birch up onto the winner's box, Malina resentfully refuses. When surfing apparel company Rip Curl offers to sponsor both Bethany and Alana, the girls are ecstatic and understandably optimistic about their future. The night before Halloween, Bethany sneaks out of her home with Alana to go night surfing. The next morning, while Bethany's father Tom is in the hospital for knee surgery, Bethany goes off surfing again with Alana, her brother Byron, and their father Holt. While dangling her left arm in the water, a tiger shark suddenly bites her arm off just below her shoulder. While Byron calls 911, Holt gets Bethany out of the water and fashions a tourniquet for her so as to slow blood loss. Holt drives Bethany furiously to the hospital and meets the ambulance on the drive down the highway. Before performing surgery on Tom's knee, the Dr. David Ravinsky is called away to treat Bethany in the emergency room. That Bethany managed to survive despite a 60% loss of her blood the doctor credits as a miracle. As Bethany recovers from her hospital stay, she and her family experience much stress because of the paparazzi that continually invade the Hamiltons' privacy. Swallowing her pride, Bethany is happy for Alana, who is participating in a Rip Curl photo shoot, even though Bethany is unable to participate due to her recent injury. Inside Edition requests an interview with Bethany and, in exchange for the interview, offers to pay for a prosthetic arm for Bethany. When Bethany actually tries out the stump, she is disappointed to find out that it is not weight-bearing and is, therefore, completely useless to her as a surfing aid. After a short recuperation period of only a few weeks, Bethany blithely returns to the water to retrain herself how to surf with her family at her side. When she eventually re-enters competion, she thanks her main rival Malina for not taking it easy on her. Additionally, Bethan rejects the five-minute head start the judges have offered her. Category:Content